Woohoo…changing site hosting and CMS all at once (why bother breaking things twice), so I expect breakage all around! 404s are inevitable, but I’m watching for them; they will be fixed if at all possible. I tend to drag along old urls (Cool URIs don’t change), so I’ll be setting up a separate ruleset to catch and redirect them. (Yes, I actually dig doing stuff like that.). So just bear with me for a few days…things should straighten out soon enough

Yikes…I’ve got a grand total of two posts in February on here! Ouch. Not that I’ve been quiet online…plenty of stuff on FriendFeed, identi.ca and other sites. FF is a great place for a quick thought or comment on a news story, etc., but I like bringing long-form stuff back here. As social networking sites proliferate, the decisions about when and where to post become quite a challenge. But the good news is, a post about that is in my to-do pile for posting, so perhaps I can get another one out in February after all!

The embarrassment of riches that we now have online for making ourselves heard makes me, on some days, hanker for the old days of hanging a page off of my original webhost, with the good old tilde: http://www.io.com/~kenzoid (ok, not really, but it was an amusing line. *grin*). With a personal website, social networking out the wazoo, microblogs, location-awareness, and forums/discussion groups around every corner, it’s nirvana. Or, it’s a nightmare. Your Mileage May Vary.

With social networking sites in particular, the balkanization of one’s identity is both a frustrating challenge and a hidden virtue. Having to recreate your account, your ID, and your relationships every time you sign up to a new site can definitely be a royal pain in the ass. And yet…solving this problem will unleash a lot of unintended second order effects, I’m thinking. There’s both promise and peril (it was ever thus).

There’s a lot of very good and important work going on right now to allow identity information to pass between networks, with proper authorization, privacy, and constraints. (See OpenID, OAuth, and Portable Contacts, for starters). That’s good stuff. It’s important, and needs to happen. And in many cases, it will be INCREDIBLY useful. But some of the blue sky scenarios outlined by proponents give the (IMO, dangerous) impression that ALL social networking should be managed this way. I don’t agree.

Human identity is complicated. Complicated enough that despite every urge to have a grand, Unified Internet Identity, I think this is something to discourage. People are social facets, and while those representations sometimes (often, even) mix, sometimes they don’t. And much like Facebook’s experiments with Beacon in 2007 leaked information unintentionally into people’s FB news streams, the same thing could, and would, happen with overly integrated identity management.

I see our ability to create multiple virtual identities as an actual advantage that the virtual world has over the real one, in the same way that digital copying (creating non-rivalrous resources) and low-to-zero digital distribution costs are an actual advantage over knowledge dissemination and creative expression via physical objects. And just as digital copying and distribution changes that game (see Wealth of Networks and “The Public Domain” to get your feet wet), virtual identity has advantages that we shouldn’t ignore just for the sake of mapping back to the real world as closely as possible.

And please, don’t get the idea that just I’ve got some secret cheese and peanut butter fetish account somewhere that I’m trying to keep hidden. *grin* If only I were that interesting…LOL. It’s much simpler. Even now, with just the simple buckets of “current real-life everyday friends”, “friendly work acquaintances”, “online buddies”, and “folks I like and have known forever, and wave at online”, I’ve got identity issues. The easiest way to separate these buckets, IMO, is to use separate services…I mainly use FF for online friends, FB for work and casual friends, and email, mailing lists, and controlled access online groups for real-life friends.

It’s not that I have much to hide. Many of these accounts and publishing endpoints (including this one) are public. But they’re not all wired together, especially in a two-way sense. And I like that. It’s not secret that I go to a lot of sci-fi conventions, and I’m happy to have folks check out the public photos (Dragon*Con 2008, for example), but jamming a big hunk of those through my Facebook news stream just doesn’t make sense to me. Likewise, I do actually subscribe to a couple of location-aware services (Latitude and BrightKite), but the privacy issues obviously make that data something that I carefully manage access to.

So while I see the promise of improved identity management going forward, I worry about the “oopsies”. I worry about people linking accounts and merging social groups without thinking through the consequences. I’m worried about the mistakes that a person can’t undo. And once again, let me reiterate…this isn’t (necessarily) about merging your AA buddylist with your work “Happy Hour” group. There are plenty of lesser embarrassments waiting. Just be careful, and let’s think about consequences (and multi-order effects) as we go.

Addendum: Damn…I tread the ground of danah boyd (“just because we can, doesn’t mean that we should”, and “Putting Privacy Settings in the Context of Use (in Facebook and elsewhere)”). Oh well…it’s not like she isn’t worth citing…she pretty much defines thought leader in this space.

So here’s my “x things/yes and no/tell me about yourself” meme-ish post. (I stuck this on FB too, but I figured the real Web deserved it as well!)

I’m not _completely_ antisocial, but I find these things way to reminiscent of chain letters, for the most part. I finally found one I could deal with…thanks, Janene! Easy to comply fully yet retain a fairly low information transfer (if you have a question, feel free to ask, but I tend not to just infodump to the world). And though I considered it, I didn’t even check the Songbird (my media player) source code to see how well they’ve implemented their shuffle. (PNRGs FTW!)

Oh, and I don’t tag, b/c that IS a chain letter, reborn with a shiny new skin. *grin* Hope you enjoy it!

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Put your iPod or other music player on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. Tag friends who might enjoy doing this as well as the person you got this from.

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?

Fat Albert Theme (Dig)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?

Don’t Give Up (Peter Gabriel)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?

We Are Santa’s Elves (Burl Ives)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?

3 Ghosts I (Nine Inch Nails)

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?

Lights in the Sky (Nine Inch Nails)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?

Lay Down Your Weapons (Scissors For Lefty)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?

Hungry Heart (Bruce Springsteen)

WHAT IS 2+2?

Bad Horse Chorus (Jed Whedon, Joss Whedon & Zack Whedon)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?

A Sermon (The Police)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?

Light Brigade (The Crimea)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?

last wish (Human Response)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?

Allegro (Richard Savino)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?

The Nutcracker, Op.71 – Act 2 – No. 12c Character Dances: Tea [Chinese Dance] (Kirov Orchestra, St Petersburg)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO (hear) AT YOUR WEDDING?

San Jacinto (Peter Gabriel)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?

Man (The Crimea)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?

Villancico: perdid tenyo la color (Jacob Heringman and Catherine King)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?

Lunch Hour (Gentle Readers)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?

Don’t Put Me On Front Street (Cash Audio)

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?

How You’ve Grown (10,000 Maniacs)

HOW WILL YOU DIE?

More Human Than Human (White Zombie)

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?

O My God (The Police)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?

Concerto no. 5 in F major [HWV 293]. Allegro (Sonnerie)

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?

Concerto terzo – Allegro [G.A.] (Nova Casa)

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?

The Carol of the Olde Ones (H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?

JS Bach: Prelude And Fugue No 9 In E Major BWV 878: Praeludium (Magnatune Compilation)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?

The Shadow Government Live on XM (They Might Be Giants)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?

Music (Madonna)

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?

The Greater Good (Nine Inch Nails)

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?

Unravel (Drawing Down the Sun)

My online buddy Paul Reynolds pointed out a freaky new take on pledge drives today on Friendfeed: NPR is encouraging people to turn in their friends that listen and don’t pledge, and then calling them for a shakedown. Seriously. I’m sure NPR thinks it’s edgy…but it’s not. It’s creepy and totally out of bounds, IMO. Here’s a MP3 of Ira Glass leaning on a listener: Megan gets the call.

Have fun, NPR…but don’t expect any money from ME anytime soon. I’ve actually started listening to some radio again as streams on my G1 (in particular, Vermont Public Radio’s excellent BBC World Service stream), and I’d not only be happy to donate to VPR, I in fact plan to do so later, in the spring (I plan and spread out donations over the year).

But if Ira Glass calls…well, I don’t think they’ll be able to play my response on the radio. *grin*

One of my resolutions for this year is to get better at reviewing books that I read. Even if it’s not much, it helps me (both work through in my head why I like or don’t like certain books, and also, it’s words on a damn page), and others (while my reviews may not be much, they’re grist for the mill of should I read this?). Good idea overall, IMO.

I’m easing into it for last year, though…writing them as I go should be much easier than one (or a few) marathon sessions to review all the books I have in my Goodreads library. I’m honestly planning on getting to them all, but for starters, I’m just going to go with my favorites from last year. So, in alphabetical order, here are the books I rated 5 stars at Goodreads in 2008. I’m working through the reviews now; mostly done, but I do want to get this out before February. *grin*

• 1984 – George Orwell (note: re-read)
• Anathem – Neal Stephenson
• Farthing – Jo Walton
• God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything – Christopher Hitchens
• Ha’penny – Jo Walton
• His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire, Book 1) – Naomi Novik
• Letters from Nuremberg: My Father’s Narrative of a Quest for Justice – Christopher Dodd
• Little Brother – Cory Doctorow

Well, I’m finally getting ready to go back to work tomorrow, after the holiday break. It’s been a whirlwind of travel, family, friends, get-togethers, etc…including the inevitable after-Christmas shopping. I really am at the point now where I have too much stuff, and one of my goals in 2009 is to trim down, ala Bruce Sterling’s suggestions in The Last Viridian Note. However, as weird as it may seem, many people simply refuse I don’t need anything as an answer when asking for gift suggestions. Even donate to a charity in my name doesn’t work much either (we did have one of those, which was awesome and much appreciated!).

So my fallback is gift cards, especially for general stores like Target or (even better!) Amazon. Companies have worked hard to remove the stigma of just buying a gift certificate, and now I can get things that I know I want, when I want them. With places like Amazon and Target in the mix (vs. a game store, mall shop, or something like that), I can even buy general household purchases. I make MANY purchases via Amazon during the year, and I can choose to use these gift cards for such mundane (but again, appreciated) purchases as coffee! Big win.

So back to the sales. We still end up with some store gift cards, and the after-Christmas sales are kind of a tradition for us to try and get some good buys with them. This year, I tried to use the trips as a barometer of consumerism, in light of the recession, continued economic crisis, and general worry over employment, housing, and bills that is going around.

So…I have data, but I don’t know how to interpret it. *grin* The malls were completely crazy this weekend, and when I was out running on both Saturday and Sunday, the traffic was much busier on main thoroughfares (which lead into local shopping areas) than I normally see at these times of the day/week. It appeared people were buying, but most people didn’t seem to happy about it; almost chore-like. In addition, there isn’t much good info from the holiday sales numbers that I see, and the aggressive sales that businesses have been pushed into can result in deflation if prices are driven TOO low, and employment, salaries, future inventory, etc. have to be cut. I don’t know how the post-holiday store layoffs of seasonal employees is going to impact things, but it can’t be good.

So I guess it’s wait and see, but the local (and subjective) confidence numbers are something I want to trend for a bit. I’m calling it 5 out of 10 right now; we’ll see how it goes.

Sheesh…time flies. It’s already almost January 3rd, and I’ve not posted to my own blog since December 18th! And I’m actually very interested in getting my thoughts down more consistently and in a more organized fashion this year. All too often, I either never manage to develop a thought into any sort of post at all, or at best, dump a micropost style message out (via Friendfeed or identi.ca). Or if it’s too long for those, it often ends up in a comment thread elsewhere. Which I certainly don’t mind doing, but I need to make sure I bring stuff back home as well!

I’m definitely going to be playing around with the lifebits concept this year, using varying services but syndicating the content through my personal namespace (kenzoid.com). I look forward to letting some ideas that have been knocking around in my head out; who knows what might work out? *grin*

Happy New Year, all!

I’m not good at moderation. It took me until about the age of 30 to really internalize that lesson, but since I have, I’ve been a happier person. Nothing earth-shatteringly different with my life, but I tend to be a little better focused.

Except when I’m not, of course. *grin* I’m not a hugely obsessive gamer, but I’ve had my share: Doom (back on the Atari Jaguar!), Warcraft (the original RTS), SimCity (long ago), Second Life (for awhile, years back), Team Fortress (both Classic and 2), WoW (for a while in the beginning), etc. And I have to admit, Fallout 3 has the potential to do that; I’m really digging it. To the point that it’s affecting my other hobbies, including a coding project that I’m working on for the Android platform. I simply can’t dig in for the deep dive that I need to push this project into high gear while I have Fallout in the back of my head, calling me…

So I decided about a week ago that I’m going to give up gaming cold turkey for awhile. I’ve learned it’s the best and easiest way for me to focus properly. So for now, no gaming until the end of January, or my Android project is done (v.1 at least), whichever comes first. Luckily, I enjoy coding as much as I do gaming, so this is less a hardship than a choice of hobby time allotment. Wish me luck!

OK, so I just finished Anathem last night, and it was a marvelous read. Really. I rattled off some mid-book thoughts a few days ago, but I’ll be writing up a more extensive review soon. One of the best books I read this year, definitely.

I love books with background material available, and of course Anathem has a bunch at Neal Stephenson’s site. Nif-ty. I especially love books with their own wikis (like Accelerando and The Wealth of Networks), but any sort of useful online addendum makes me feel warm and tingly inside. Thanks, Neal. (though he appears to have some uptime issues…irk. I hope the widget caches.)

I enjoy listening to Stephenson’s voice, and I like Anathem quotes, so the video widget (also below) was a no-brainer! Check it out; as an example, the ‘Bulshytt’ definition rules, and definitely gives the flavor of the work.

OK, it’s only been a few days, but I’m already happy enough to call the new Google Tasks addition a win. Sure, it needs tweaks, and integration with other tools, and a API, and coordination with my G1, yada yada. But for now, it works, it’s simple but gets the job done, and I’m already logged into Gmail so it’s right there. And with the I Want Sandy fiasco, I was in need of a todo tool reboot anyway, so the timing was perfect.

Thanks, Google!! It looks like the gBorgification of Ken will continue…*grin*